Mass Effect: Perdition
by JoelACooper
Summary: Alex and her friends must think, talk, and shoot their way to the truth when one of them is taken into custody for a crime they didn't commit, while their attempted killers must make a dash for their lives when their employers try to silence them, for good. The Mass Effect universe and it's afilliated elements are owned by Bioware, all original characters owned by JoelACooper
1. Prologue

**A/N 1: Just testing the water a bit with this. It's the prologue of what I hope will become a series of Mass Effect inspired stories. These stories will not focus on Commander Shepard or any of the other main characters, although they may appear from time-to-time. So with that in mind, please... enjoy. **_JoelACooper_

The sound of explosions tore through the Presidium. Waves of glass and steel hurled themselves overhead and into the delicate waters with an immense splash. Smoke billowed into the artificial daytime like a massive structural pillar holding up the animated sky.

The Mass Relay sculpture fizzed and whirred as the space around it buckled in a brilliant blue light. It was like a horrible hole was being torn, torn by creatures trying to haul themselves through from a different reality. And they did. Creatures of metal and plastic, of oil and hydraulic fluid. Like a swarm of locusts they flooded into the Citadel, and like ghouls they made their way through the Presidium, slaughtering all who stood in their way. Bolts of lightning fizzing off the perfect white surfaces as they cut down diplomat and merchant, preacher and pedestrian alike. Killing as only a machine can. Cold, calculated, completely without mercy.

The occupants of Presidium began to flock away from the sculpture and their pursuers. They ran like a herd of sheep from a wolf, those who were hit, lay where they fell. Trampled. Cold. Dead. She didn't know who they were, or where they'd come from, but she had to get away. Bolts of energy hissed in the plastic around her feet and head, missing her by mere inches, forever burning death into the pristine coating of the Presidium. Screams filled her ears, and smoke filled her nose and throat, burning her senses and forcing tears from her eyes.

The stampede pressed forwards, Alex among them, not knowing where they were going, but she didn't care just as long as they kept moving. At least, until that planting box came out of nowhere.

Her left foot snagged on the leaves of an exotic Salarian flower, the red petals sending her sailing through the air. Time seemed to slow down as the ground retreated from beneath her. Her head made contact with the front of a posh restaurant and everything went black.

{- -« »- -}

It was only a vague haze at first, spinning and whirling in front of her face. As the spinning stopped, and the haziness in her eyes gave way to the crisp minimalism of the Presidium, Alex realised that she must have been knocked out for a good few minutes. The Presidium had changed from the, pristine diplomatic nerve-center of the civilised galaxy, to a post-apocalyptic war-zone. The crowds had vanished; panels were strewn across the floor; railings were missing; and trees were burning. But worst of all was the bodies. Instead of being respectfully collected by this invading force, they had been left where they fell, face-down in their own pools of blood, faces still contorted with fear. The dank stench of death was enough to overpower even the scorching plumes of smoke.

Her head sloshed around as she hauled herself to her feet. She supported her weight against the wall of the restaurant for a few seconds. That's when she saw them, lights sweeping through the smog, checking every nook and cranny, slowly advancing through the darkness. Relief flooded through her body, a search party.

"Hey, over here! Help!" her voice reverberated along the platform, causing all the lights to snap in her direction, but instead of rushing to her aid, they seemed to consider her for a moment before the tallest of the lights began to advance towards her, the others returning to their previous task. Fear once again clasped Alex in its steely grip as she realised that she had seen these awful things before.

The silver tip of a rifle appeared out of the smog but Alex wasn't there to see it, she had already concealed herself behind an upturned table inside the restaurant. The contents of the expensive Asari dinner were splashed carelessly across the floor. Over the top of the table, She watched as the hulking creature stopped outside the window, its single bright eye sweeping over the surrounding landscape. It was at least ten feet tall, its polished white exterior fitting in well with the surroundings of the Presidium. As the cyclops' eye swung around to the restaurant, Alex ducked back behind the table, hoping that it hadn't seen her.

A few seconds of silence, she let out a breath that she didn't realise that she was holding. On the back wall of the restaurant, she noticed a door marked, 'kitchen'. As she began to crawl towards it, she heard the thud of large footsteps on the shattered glass, a large shadow descending on the back wall. Shocked by the sudden appearance of the monster, she immediately bolted for the door, slipping on several spilled dishes of food. As the door began to slide open, the table she was previously hiding behind flew over her head and jammed itself in the frame.

An unstoppable object collided with her left hand side, flinging her across the room and slamming her into the opposite wall. She slid to the floor, facing the monster in front of her, its huge frame having to crouch slightly to fit into the confines of the restaurant. As it brought its rifle up to its chest, Alex curled herself into a ball, hiding her eyes with her arms. She was hot; she was tired; she was sweaty; she stunk of burning, and death; and now, she was going to die.

As the faint shimmer of blue light filtered through her eyelids, she squeezed them tighter. Unable to contain her terror any longer, she opened her mouth and let out a blood curdling scream, releasing all of her feelings into the air. She heard gunfire around her, commotion, yelling. Then, with an almighty crash, it ceased. That was it, she was dead. Gone, probably to be forgotten forever. She kept her eyes closed for a few seconds, before finally deciding to open them, and find out what was in store for her in the afterlife.

To her surprise, she was still in the very same restaurant, in the very same situation as before. Almost the same, except that the creature that was going to execute her, was now lying dead on the floor, its twisted body seeping a white fluid out of a series of bullet holes that now adorned its chest and head, its single eye lying dark on the front of its face. A few soldiers in various colours of armour had taken the place of the creature, two were inspecting the damage to the dead thing, and three others were standing guard.

One of the soldiers who was inspecting the damage to the dead robot walked up to Alex and crouched down to her, taking off his helmet. He placed his hand on her shoulder and spoke on a gentle voice, "Are you alright miss?" Alex slowly nodded her head, wiping tears from her face. A smile crossed his lips briefly, "Good. I'm Sergeant Dixon, we're with the Alliance." he gestured to the other soldiers in the room.

Through chattering teeth and trembling breaths, Alex introduced herself. "I-I'm Alex Chamberlain, d-daughter of representative Louis Chamberlain."

The Sergeant smiled, "I know your old man. I was a bodyguard for him last time he visited Earth."

"Oh, really? He never menti..."

One of the soldiers called over his shoulder to the Sergeant, "Sarge, we gotta move! They've seen us." Bolts of energy began to fly past him, a few being soaked up by his armour. Without being phased, he raised his rifle and returned fire, as did the others.

Dixon turned back to Alex as he replaced his helmet, the visor blocking out his eyes, his voice sounding coarse and robotic through the modulator, "Come on we need to go." As she took her first step forwards, she grunted and doubled over in pain, clutching at her ribs. She'd forgotten about her injury. Sighing, Dixon slung his rifle on his back and gently scooped her into his arms. She clung as hard as she could to the cold, black steel of his armour. It was rough, and uncomfortable, but right now it was probably the safest place on the entire Citadel.

Turning back to his soldiers, who were still firing out of the shattered windows, he yelled his orders, "Right lads, cover me, then follow behind, we're gonna make a run for the wards!"

The soldiers boots clanked on the floor of the Presidium as they made their way along the structure. Alex couldn't see what was going on, her face was pressed tight against the Sergeants armour, but her ears were filled with the blasting of rifles, and the hissing of shields.

Suddenly, the group came to a stop. As alex opened her eyes, she realised that all the soldiers had taken up firing positions in a small floral garden. At the back of the garden, in the opposite direction to the Presidium, was a set of elevator doors.

Dixon placed her on the ground, with her back against a small planting box at the rear of the squad. He took out a small syringe and injected the blue fluid it contained into her ribcage before she could protest. Almost immediately, the pain in her ribcage began to alleviate, until it disappeared entirely.

Dixon spoke straight to her face, keeping his helmet on and whispering through the modulator, "Over there is an elevator to the wards." He pointed back over to the wall behind him, "Get in it and press the button for the medical suite. Dr Michel should still be there, and the place is surrounded by C-sec. You'll be safe there. We'll give covering fire. When I tell you to run, you run. Don't stop, don't slow down, don't turn around, just run! Understand?" Alex opened her mouth to protest but he cut her off viciously, "Understand?!" Alex nodded as fast as she could, shocked by his outburst. He plucked his rifle from the back of his armour. She could hear the gears whirring as the different parts of the rifle affixed themselves into place. Finally, he shouldered it and spoke again, "Good."

Rising to his feet he began to fire at the invaders, barking orders at the other soldiers. Alex didn't know how many of them there were, didn't know how close they were, didn't know anything about them. She was so focused on her fear, that she almost didn't hear Dixon shout to her.

Without a glance back, she bolted across the open courtyard, her feet beating heavily against the floor. The door slid open and she hurled herself inside. As the doors slid closed, she could see dozens of the cybernetic monsters closing on Dixon and his squad. They were fighting for their lives, using all of the weapons, powers, and biotics they had, but the enemy was still advancing.

Finally, she saw the mass relay light up again, and a small, white buggy came flying through the blue haze, three dark figures staggering out of it. The doors closed and sealed with a hiss, blocking her view of anything else.

{- -« »- -}

Alex sat in the interviewees chair, shifting uncomfortably. The Alliance recruitment officer had been looking at her papers for at least 5 minutes, as if he was trying to come to a decision about her. It didn't look good.

He dropped the papers on to the desk with a dull slap and leaned forwards onto his elbows, his high-collared navy uniform staying rigid against his neck. His voice was low and monotone, as if he was speaking from a pre-determined script, "I'm afraid that your fitness scores aren't quite high enough for me to allow you to sign up to the Marines." A pang of disappointment pierced her heart, she'd been training for weeks to try and get into the marines. As she was about to apologise for wasting his time, the interviewer continued, "However, your fitness scores are well above average, and your written examination scores indicate that you have a high leadership potential and excellent creativity levels. Therefore, I'm happy to offer you a position on an officer training course." The interviewer reclined into his chair, running his thumb and forefinger along his chin. "Are there any questions?"

Alex thought to herself for a few seconds, she'd not even considered being an officer, and she could always ask for a transfer if she really didn't enjoy it. Alex steeled her nerves and spoke up, "Just one."

He raised an eyebrow, "Go on."

A sly smile crossed Alex's lips as she spoke, "Where do I sign?"

**A/N 2: I hope you enjoyed this prologue. Comments and criticism of the bad and praise of the good are more than welcome, I am a novice writer after all, and I definitely hope to improve. Thank you for taking the time to read this taster, and I hope you come back for more. **_JoelACooper_


	2. Wishes

Alex made her way along the flight deck, her highly polished parade shoes clicking on the metal floor. The hustle and bustle of operational life on the SSV Moscow continuing around her. The hum of engines, the whirring of the air-filtration system, the daily banter of the crew, Alex lived and breathed it now, she loved every second of it.

It had been six months since the attack on the Citadel by the Geth. Alex had only found out the name of the invaders from a C-Sec officer whilst she was in the medical centre recovering from her injuries. It was about this time that she had discovered that her father had been killed in the attack. Dixon had come to tell her himself, they found him skewered on a 'dragons tooth', something the Geth use to turn humans into robotic husks. He was half human, half cybernetic monster by the time Dixon found him. She hated the Geth for what they had done to the people on the Citadel, slaughtering them like animals, showing no mercy. She had sworn to herself that day that she would kill every Geth that she came across. If, that is, she ever came across any.

She would soon have plenty of chances to face them she hoped, just 30 more operational hours, and she'd be marching on the parade ground on her passing out parade. The SSV Moscow was currently eating up more of those hours than she'd anticipated, however. With fifty per cent of the crew made up of raw recruits and trainees, Alex had already spent plenty of time aboard the ship, but even with her new love of the Alliance, being directed away from their frigate flotilla in the middle of a routine patrol in the Skyllian Verge to attend to a distress call wasn't something she was expecting.

Located on edges of Alliance and Batarian space, the Skyllian Verge was an area of huge unrest. Rife with pirates and mercenary gangs, raids on colonies were commonplace, and devestating. By the time the Alliance responded to any distress call, it was already likely to be far too late. Despite the tension, the small-scale skirmishes that take place regularly have never escalated into a full-scale war. Cries for help were common enough in the Verge, but not common enough to be entrusted to raw recruits, so why them?

The derelict freighter had finally appeared on LaDAR about an hour earlier, concealed in an asteroid belt. There were no signs of life on board, and the VI hadn't detected any kind of registration. What had happened to it, and how it had come to be here? Nobody had any idea. So here they were, finding out.

She stepped into the elevator and keyed for the Engineering level. As the doors began to slide closed, a male figure hopped in between them, and gave a sigh of relief as the doors slid by the ends of his feet with centimetres to spare. He straightened himself out, adjusting his black hair and tucking his blue working shirt into his trousers. Marine Sergeant Chris Evans was as striking to behold as he was great to talk to. His light-hearted nature and quick wit, along with his well muscled body and flirtatious nature made him popular with women, any women in fact.

He smirked, his melodic voice drifting across the inside of the elevator as it clattered its way through the bowels of the ship, "Ah, Cadet Chamberlain. Fancy running into you here."

Alex smiled warmly and blushed, "Sergeant Evans. It's a pleasure, as always." She said sarcastically, planting a kiss on his cheek.

The two of them had met soon after Alex's training had begun, and it wasn't long before glances were being exchanged. Even though Chris was a few years older than Alex, the pair had been casually seeing each other for a couple of months, both deciding to keep it that way for the time being.

"So, where you heading?" Chris leaned against the back of the elevator as it rumbled downwards.

"Engineering. The Captain wants a report on how the Trident services are going. You?"

"Suiting up for boarding, we're going to take one of the Kodiaks and investigate that freighter." He let out a sigh and shrugged his shoulders, "Could be worse I suppose. At least we're going in on our terms... we think."

Boarding an unknown ship was dangerous at the best of times. Any number of things could go wrong, from sudden collisions with space debris, to crazed VI security systems trying to kill you. Boarding a ship in the Skyllian Verge and you add to the list; elaborate traps, concealed pirates, and deactivated Mechs.

Alex stroked the side of his face with one hand and gripped his hands with the other. "Don't panic Chris, I'm sure you'll be alright." She gave his hands a short squeeze as the elevator hissed to a halt. She planted a kiss on his cheek as they went their separate ways.

The steps down onto the Landing bay clicked as Alex hurried down them, pushing past several of the engineering crew scurrying towards the elevator. The bulkhead into the maintenance area groaned as it slid open, and clunked heavily again as it shut. She was greeted with the fizzing and whirring of power tools, and the overpowering aroma of engine oil. Several F-61 Trident fighters were lined along the left hand side of the workroom, the closest of which was dripping wet with soapy water, being polished by an engineer.

The cruiser's complement of fighter spacecraft was tiny, up to five fighters and interceptors could be stored in the crowded hangar bay at once. The fighters were rarely used in ship-to-ship combat during patrols in the Skyllian Verge, that's what the Frigates were for, but had an imperative role in large-scale battles where they could disable kinetic barrier generators to allow Alliance ships to destroy an enemy fleet with amazing precision and speed.

Alex called out to the closest engineer, "Where's Chief?"

The engineer turned around, and Alex recognised him as Serviceman Daniel Barnturp. He relaxed as soon as he saw her, "Oh hey Alex. He's gone off somewhere, probably grabbing fourty winks, but Stevens is working on the end Trident." He waved before turning back to his work.

Barnturp was one of the fully-qualified engineers that kept the ship running smoothly. He was officially Chief engineer Hawthorne's second in command, although he wasn't much of a leader. Stevens had unofficially taken the role, which Alex thought suited Banturp, Stevens, the ship, and just about everyone else better.

"Thanks Dan." She strolled over to the fighter at the back of the workshop, but couldn't see any figures around it. Her attention was almost immediately drawn downwards as a violent hissing emanated from the underside of the craft, accompanied by cries of, 'God damn it, you pile of junk'.

Alex smiled as she moved to the other side of the craft. She found a skinny pair of legs sticking out from underneath the engine, accompanied by an ominous white mist making its way towards the ceiling. After a few moments, and a few more curses, the mist dissipated and the crackling of welding started.

Alex cleared her throat several times. The legs made no effort to move. She raised her voice, "There's another lady out here feeling lonely without your attention you know!" she said playfully. The welding ceased almost immediately and the legs hauled themselves from under the craft.

Known as an introvert to most of the crew, but as an opinionated, straight-talking, quick witted, and charming workaholic to those who got to know him, his lanky frame was easily recognisable no matter how many layers of grease, muck, and god knows what else he was covered in. Officer Cadet Michael Stevens was one of the Moscow's apprentice Engineers. Only recently transferred aboard from a posting on Arcturus station, he and Alex had, quite unexpectedly, and to the horror of the ships senior officers, gelled almost immediately. Originally educated at the Alliance's famous Grissom academy, he'd fast become the best engineer on the ship, if not in the whole Alliance Navy. He'd been headhunted by several human, and alien, military equipment companies as a designer, but had turned down all of their offers, stating he'd consider their offers as soon as they _'stop kissing the asses of their shareholders and start producing decent, affordable equipment.'_

A smile spread across the young engineer's pale face as he raised himself into a sitting position and wiped his hands on a rag, which he promptly tucked into the back of his trousers. He spoke quietly, the sarcastic tone in his voice evident, "Well, I'd be happy to give _you_ as much attention as you want."

Alex smiled, "If you want to give me any more attention than you are now Stevens, I want dinner and a movie first."

They both laughed off the comment and Alex leaned on the fighter's engine "So, what can I do for you?" His voice had returned to its usual serious tone.

"Captain Hiller is looking for an update on the Trident service."

The cadet let out a sigh and shook his head, "This is a stupid time to do maintenance." He reached onto the top of the engine and grabbed a datapad, quickly typing in a few words and handing it over to Alex, "We've only got one of the Tridents ready for combat, the other is still waiting for its Heat-sinks and coolant fluid. We haven't even started on the interceptors yet."

"Bit slower than usual aren't you?" Alex asked.

"Yep." the engineer stated, bluntly, "But that's probably because we don't have any parts ro service them with. We've checked the stock against the shipping manifest, five times in fact, and half of the stock is missing."

Alex's brow contorted in confusion, "What do you mean missing?"

Stevens raised an eyebrow, "I mean they're not there. They're listed, they're signed for, but they're not in any of the cargo boxes. We've had to cannibalize one of the fighters to refit these two." He gestured to an empty fighter that was little more than a skeleton skulking in one corner of the workshop. Two huge wheeled containers were overflowing with bits of electronics and ceramic plates.

Alex breathed in through gritted teeth, "Hiller's not going to like this."

Michael snorted, "Yeah? Well it was that or I don't do the refit at all. This situation is so bad, I've had to fabricate some of the parts from scratch because we have exactly zero of them. I told the Captain there was something wrong with the stock before we broke off, why the hell did they decide we were the better ship for this job?"

Alex huffed and shook her head, "Captain of the Hiroshima volunteered us apparently, engine trouble or something like that."

Stevens' face scrunched up slightly before he shook his head and dismissed whatever thought he was having. Alex expected him to elaborate, but he didn't.

"Well, at least this job is keeping you occupied, the Captain's had me being joint errand girl and gopher for about four hours now. God, I wish something exciting would happen around here once in a while. What do you think?"

With that, all of the lights on the ship instantaneously clicked off, plunging the crew into darkness. After a few moments, the red emergency lighting activated, flooding the walls of the workroom with ghost-like silhouettes.

Michael turned his head towards Alex, his voice low, almost a whisper, "I think you should be more careful with your wishes Al."

{- -« »- -}

To say that Captian Hiller hated his job, was an immense understatement. To the Captain, being assigned to train raw recruits into something even vaguely resembling a coherent fighting unit, was all of his nightmares come to life. Not only did he have the already tremendous task of commanding one of the Alliance's warships, he had to command one of the Alliances warships that was controlled by spotty, snivelling, grovelling teenagers. Every day that the Captain woke up on the vessel, he hoped it was one horrible nightmare. Today, however, was in a league of its own.

Captain Hiller sat in his command chair under the red emergency lighting. It had been like this for ten minutes. Everything was offline, comms, weapons, barriers, even life support. They were sitting ducks like this, although they were unlikely to suffocate... a pirate ship would kill them all long before that happened.

"Report!" The Captains voice echoed around the bridge, the stress of the situation straining it. "For the love of god someone please report something."

All of a sudden, the lights on the bridge flickered to life, dousing its occupants with a bright white haze. Hiller's face turned to the console in front of him. One of the lights began to blink. He pressed the button and a face flashed onto a small panel in the right side of his vision.

The voice was clean cut and precise. He immediately recognised it as the Officer cadet assigned to engineering, "Captain Hiller. Officer cadet Stevens, Apprentice Engineer. I've managed to get the comms and other basic electronics back online. Lights, life support systems, etcetera. I'm still working on the rest. Sensors should be coming online now."

A second panel appeared above the first, "Sir, short-range sensors back online." The red-haired females voice sprung forth from the screen. The tone of relief was evident, despite the fact that she had tried desperately to hide it.

The engineer opened his mouth again to speak, but the Captain cut him off sharply, "Cadet, I don't care what order things are coming back online in, just tell me what happened."

Hiller sat back in his chair, waiting for the apology from the cadet. He had once ben glad to have an intelligent crewman on board, having someone trained at Grissom academy on board your ship was a rare honour, but this one was as too clever for his own good. He was constantly tinkering, constantly suggesting ways to improve the ship. After a week or so of non-stop technical garbage from the cadet, the Captain had just stopped taking notice. Eventually, the cadet got the message and had steered well clear of the Captain ever since. He knew it was wrong, but a small part of him was pleased that the cadet hated him.

Stevens shook his head, "It could be a number of things sir, I'd have to look at the black box to be sure."

It was all the Captain could do to stop himself trying to reach through the monitor and strangle him, "Well have a guess then, cadet!"

The cadet recoiled, clearly taken aback by the captains outburst, "Umm, well... If I had to pass judgement, sir, I would say that it was caused by a highly advanced Cyber-warfare suite systematically hacking through the defensive firewalls and shutting down all our systems. With the difficulty we've had getting them back online, I'd say it was a complex VI operating system, and it's run out of options."

The captain paused, glaring daggers into the young engineer. It was a ridiculous explanation, there were no ships in the area with technology that advanced. He was just trying to cover his own skin.

Hiller waved his hand indignantly, "Whatever Cadet, just get this ship back online."

The Engineer's back straightened, his pristine voice returning, "Aye Aye sir." Both connections went dead at the same time.

Captain Hiller turned to his XO, his perfect posture retained despite the situation. "What do you recommend Summers?"

The bald man sighed, thinking the question over in his head, "Well sir, I think the immediate course of action would be to wait until we can move the ship, and then head to the nearest Council docking station to have the ship debugged."

The Captian smiled and shook his head. He liked his XO. Summers was of an older generation than the cadets, no frills, and no extras, but he did like his regulations a little too much. "No Summers, that's not what we're going to do. We're going to continue our current objective and find out what this ship is before we decide on anything else." The Captain rose from his chair, and opened his mouth to announce his plans to the rest of the crew, when sirens began blaring around the bridge, red warning lights sweeping along the walls, casting deathly shadows on everyone's faces.

As he was about to ask what was happening, a huge shell pierced the side of the bridge, blasting a large hole in one wall of the ship. The last thing anyone in there felt, was the air being sucked out of their lungs.

{- -« »- -}

The sirens stopped, and the metallic voice of the VI came over the loudspeakers, "Armour compromised, bridge critically damaged."

"Jesus, he had his whole command crew up there," Alex said, "He woke them up whilst we investigated the freighter." A few more seconds of silence elapsed, "Wonder who's in charge now."

Finally, the VI spoke again, "Under combat regulation ANP 302.56.7, Officer Cadet Alex Chamberlain has been promoted to acting Captain."

All eyes in the room focussed on Alex. She felt her skin boil as more eyes fixed on her. She was sure that they were all judging her to have failed before she'd even began. She could feel all of the colour draining from her face, every scrap of confidence flooding from her body like a tidal wave. She was aware of faint voices thudding and droning in her head.

It was Michael's voice that brought her back to reality, its confidence pierced the cocoon of shock she was in, "Alex?" She looked directly at him, regaining her composure. His voice was soft and low, the shock had rattled him immensely, "Orders ma'am?"


	3. From Russia with love

This was not happening. Her? Acting Captain? This had to be a nightmare. A horrible, terrifying nightmare. She glanced around the room, all eyes were still glued to her. She swallowed hard, her hands clammy and trembling. No, this was no nightmare. This was real. She fixed her gaze on Michael's eyes, almost trying to stare him down. Her voice was firm and commanding, all nerves gone, "Raise Kinetic barriers, get ready to move. I'm going to the CIC." she turned on her heels and left the maintenance area, followed by the familiar clicking sounds of her parade shoes.

{- -« »- -}

The door dragged itself along its tracks hissing as it went. Alex Chamberlain strode into the CIC, hands behind her back, blonde hair neatly tucked behind her ears. All eyes were on her as she took up her position in front of the holographic tactical display. No one spoke, the CIC was silent save for the light humming of the life support systems.

"Some of the officers and other crew ordered evacuations as soon as the doors were back online. They didn't think you'd come up here to take command." Someone said from her right-hand side, she hadn't heard anyone approaching.

The speaker was one of the Officer Cadets assigned to the CIC, Officer Cadet Sarah Miller. Her vibrant red hair, and stunningly attractive looks were a devious disguise from her job of spotting threats and calculating firing solutions. Having grown up in an Alliance family, her abilities to understand an empathise made her an excellent judge of character, and her near-perfect memory meant that she never fell for the same trick twice.

Alex turned back to the room. Most of the faces looking back at her wore an expression not of fear, but of anticipation. This kind of thing was never covered in lessons, nobody on that bridge knew what was going to happen. She could tell, however, that they were scared, she could feel it in the air.

'Why shouldn't they be scared?' Alex thought, 'This will quite possibly be their last five minutes alive if I get this wrong'. She cleared her throat loudly, "The officers have already gone. Anyone else want to follow?" No one moved a muscle, not even a small twitch. Alex wasn't even sure that anybody breathed in those few seconds. "Well then, get this ship ready to move." As if someone had switched the light on in a dark room, the CIC jumped back to life, thrumming with activity.

Alex turned her attention to the holographs in front of her. As she continued to watch, two ships dropped out of FTL, well within range of the SSV Moscow's mass accelerator cannon. The predators, were about to become the prey.

{- -« »- -}

Vixen watched his orange display as the two ships hurtled through FTL. The stars were so far away that they had barely moved, the engines were whining quietly as they pushed for the ship through the empty vacuum of space.

He tapped his hand nervously on his desk. There was no reason that anything should go wrong now. Their decoy ship had emitted the signal to tell them that the target was disabled; the second pulse had told them that the shell had been fired; and the decoy should have fried itself by now to erase the evidence. They could be in, snatch their target, and get out before anyone realised that anything had happened. They'd done it before, five times already, a success every time.

Despite all of this, he still couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to go drastically, and horribly wrong with this mission.

The tailing off of the engines told him that they were coming out of FTL. He keyed off the screen in front of him and made his way to the cockpit.

As he slumped in the co-pilot's chair, he looked over at Crab, the pilot. For a few seconds, neither human spoke, the silence broken only by their heavy breathing.

Eventually, Crab removed his headset and looked over at Vixen. The note of cockiness was evident in his voice, he thought they already had this wrapped up. "So, an Alliance cruiser huh? Think we've done it good this time. Cerberus will be pleased."

Vixen relaxed into his chair, laying his nerves to rest. It was probably just because he'd forgotten to bring a drink to stiffen up. "I'm sure they will. Wonder what the paycheck is going to be this time." The pair began to laugh and slap each other on the back. The euphoria of victory going to their heads.

"You boys want to cool it and concentrate? We haven't won yet." Kat's harsh voice came from a small hologram on the instruments panel, her stern eyes boring into them and cutting their celebration short.

"Yes Ma'am." Crabs voice was sarcastically upset, forcing Vixen to try and conceal his smile. He failed.

Kat sneered and keyed off the hologram. As it fizzled into nothing, the pair began to laugh to themselves. However, it wasn't long before lights started blinking, and Crab stopped laughing. His eyes flicked between the control panel and several of the displays.

Vixen's stomach dropped as he realised something was terribly wrong. "W-what's happened? Is it not a cruiser?" He stuttered.

Crab didn't look up, "Oh, it's a cruiser all right... But it didn't stay dead. The fucking thing is back online."

{- -« »- -}

Michael's voice appeared over the CIC loudspeakers, "Mass effect fields prepped. Ready for jump to FTL whenever you are Captain."

Alex, though for a moment, "No. Activate the distress beacon and get the Mass Accelerator cannon ready. Prepare for combat."

"You sure Captain? There's no going back if we commit."

"Completely. If we're going down, these bastards are coming with us."

"Aye ma'am." The loudspeaker clicked off.

"Mass Accelerator ready for combat. GARDIAN lasers primed for firing, closing exterior blast shields." The hull rumbled as the blast shields moved into place, sealing the ship like an armadillo. "Blast shields closed, SSV Moscow prepared for combat and fully at your disposal ma'am." Sarah's voice was clean cut and precise.

Alex nodded, "Thank you Miller, you may fire when ready."

"Aye Aye ma'am." Sarah nodded and took up her position next to the map, typing frantically on her screen. Gradually the ship rotated towards the larger of its two oppressors, bolts flickering from the end of its main weapon. As she watched, the ball of light contacted with the side of the ship, and disappeared. So did the next volley of shots. It wasn't long before their two attackers were separating and retaliating with their own fire.

The ship rocked as the kinetic barriers deflected the incoming slugs. "Why aren't we hitting anything?" Alex screamed at the holograms, hands gripping the railings at the side of the map.

"Sensors show they're using military level kinetic barriers. We'll be here for hours before anything bursts through." Sarah replied, not looking up from her monitor. "Unless we launch fighters to disrupt the generators."

"No good. There's only a few ready for flight. They'll be slaughtered by GARDIAN fire before they get any shots off." Alex creased her brow in thought, "What if we use electronic warfare?"

"We can't get close enough. Both those ships are designed to board other vessels. They'd be running through the halls before our attacks do any good."

Alex slammed her hand on the railing and turned away. As she looked towards the ceiling, a blinking light caught her eye. As she focussed on it, she realised that it was the escape pod 'ready' light. "Sarah, how many escape pods are still docked?"

Sarah brought up a diagram on the screen, "Still got 40 pods left. Not enough to carry everyone. Why?"

Alex's mouth curled into a half smile before she strode back towards the map, "I have an idea."

{- -« »- -}

The cannon thudded as it sent rounds towards the warship. Its kinetic barriers were deflecting everything they threw at it. Vixen and Crab sat in silence in the craft, gripping the arms on their seats, beads of sweat running down their heads. Their only hope was that their attack had damaged something vital and they'd give up and run. Currently, that plan wasn't working out.

Crab shook his head, "We need to get out of here. This is gonna go to shit real fast if we don't move now."

Vixen kept his eyes on the display, "Calm down Crab. It'll be fine. Just calm down." He didn't know weather he was trying to convince Crab or himself.

All of a sudden, Crab perked up, "Hey, are you seeing this?" A large image of the Alliance Warship appeared on the display in front of them. Several of the side panels were sliding open, revelaing at least 30, probably more, escape pods. With a sudden flash, the pods began to depart from the ship. A grin spread across Crabs face, "They're launching all of the escape pods. They've given up. We did it. Holy shit! We did it!"

Vixen's eyes were still glued to the display. He threw a sideways glance at Crab, "If we've won, surely the pods should be going the other way."

{- -« »- -}

The entire CIC was watching holograms with anticipation. Parallel walls of escape pods drifted towards their assailants, passing straight between them. GARDIAN lasers on the two pirate ships automatically targeted the pods, causing a couple of them to explode, and veer off course. Both the Trident pilots kept their heads down, and soon enough, the GARDIAN fire tailed off. Just what they were hoping for.

Without so much as a word, the two fighters gunned their engines and leapt from cover, hammering the now defenceless pirates with a withering hail of fire. One of the pirate's Kinetic barrier generators exploded outwards, closely followed by the generator on the other ship.

Their work complete, the fighters swung around and sped back towards the Moscow, the slowest of the two catching a bolt of GARDIAN, crippling one of its engines, but the skilled pilot managed to limp out of range before the rest of the lasers could follow suit.

With none of their defences left, the two pirate ships floundered for a moment before turning around to run... straight into the blazing guns of a flotilla of combat frigates.


	4. Suspect

The stunning purple aether of the Serpent Nebulae wrapped itself around the SSV Moscow as she dropped out of relay transit, concealing the Citadel with their fluid-like tendrils. As they travelled through the Nebulae, the Citadel's odd silhouette loomed in the distance.

Alex let out a relieved sigh as the reports came in from different areas of the ship, each saying that everything was operating smoothly. As they crept closer to the Citadel, the atmosphere inside the ship took a dramatic shift. The stress of the last few hours dissipating and leaving a light, cool atmosphere in its place.

As the tips of the wards began to shimmer into view, the Moscow became engulfed by freighter-sized craft, guideing them towards the immense station. As they passed through the picturesque tendrils of the wards arms, Alex could see other ships around the Citadel going out of their way to avoid their ships flight path. A damaged warship returning to the Citadel was a rare sight.

As the hydraulic clamps locked the ship in place in the docking bay, the whirring and humming of the ship ceased, the Moscow finally able to rest after their terrible ordeal.

Deafening silence fell on the ship, the whole crew frozen in place. Alex's heart was drumming in her ears, her stomach was performing a synchronised swimming routine with her head, and her whole body was quivering, with a sheen of cold sweat covering her from head to toe.

All of a sudden, a single noise pierced the void, a single repetitive noise. Soon, this single noise became faster, and louder, and faster, and louder. Alex heaved her head up and looked around the room. It only took a few moments to discover the origin of the noise: everyone on the bridge was clapping. Alex let out a shuddering breath, a huge smile spreading across her face. They had definitely made it.

With the misery of the events still at the forefront of their minds, thankful only that they were back alive, the crew made for the exits, chattering excitedly amongst themselves.

As the Air-lock hissed open, Alex stepped forwards through the still widening gap, only to be shoved back by a Turian wielding an Assault rifle. As the door continued to open, more aliens in the trademark black and blue armour of Citadel Security came into view. Most of the officers were Turian, with a few Asari and humans among them. Alex glanced down at the lower level docking platforms, all of which were similarly swarming with Squads of highly armed troops as well. She could hear a few of the crew shouting at C-Sec but they were quickly shunned by some harsh words from their officers.

At the head of the C-Sec squad in front of Alex, was an elaborately dressed Turian, with white clan markings adorning his face. Alex would have been shocked if anyone who had ever been on the Citadel didn't recognised him immediately, Executor Pallin.

The Executor's mandibles twitched from side to side, which Alex assumed was the Turian equivalent of a sly grin. There were a few moments of silence before the Executor spoke, "Who is the commanding officer of this vessel?"

Alex folded her arms and tried to sound as indignant as possible, "I am."

One of the Executors eyes twitched. Clearly this hadn't been the answer he wanted. "Where is Captain James Hiller?" The question grumbled through Pallin's teeth

Alex's shoulders dropped. There was no way that the C-Sec Executor should know who the Captain of that ship was, unless something was really wrong.

Pallin's foot tapped on the ground. He was getting impatient. "Well? Where is he?" He snapped.

Alex gulped, "He... he's dead. We were attacked."

The Executor tipped his head to the massive puncture in the side of the ship, "So I can see." He took a step closer to the acting Captain, "Funny for you to be out on patrol alone, isn't it?" As Alex opened her mouth to reply, the Executor cut her short, "You, and your entire crew are being investigated on charges of treason. The crew are to be confined to this ship until the investigation is complete!"

Alex's mouth dropped as the Executor spoke. That explained why C-Sec was investigating, not the Alliance. Alex squared her shoulders to the Executor, "You can't do that! As the acting captain of this vessel, I demand to see the Alliance representative!"

The Executor smiled, "Actually, I think you'll find that _you_, can't do that." He pressed the button on his transmitter and spoke into it, "Take all of the officers for interrogation, detain the rest of the crew here under armed guard."

As the Executors comm clicked off, Alex felt two three fingered hands grab her by the arms and force her forwards. She struggled and kicked to get free, but it was no use, the Turians kept their crushing grip on her. The Executor paid no attention to the officers as they were dragged from the ship, and the others were herded back on.

{- -« »- -}

The kinetic barrier across the front of the cell crackled into life, separating Alex from the two officers outside. These two were significantly less armed than the ones that had dragged her, and the other officers, off the ship earlier. The guards both turned and left after they were sure that the barrier was secure.

Alex sighed and turned to look at her cell. Even by prison standards, it wasn't well furnished. The left wall was adorned by a sorry excuse for a bed, and on the right was a shelf occupied by a small, blue pot-plant slumping lazily under an artificial light. The rooms cold, steel walls and floor offered little comfort from the turbulence of getting on the wrong side of C-Sec. She noted, however, that it was clearly only a night holding-cell, which meant that C-Sec must have been fairly confident that it wasn't her who was to blame.

Alex lay back on the bed, not even bothering to change out of her dress blues. The ceiling was just as plain and cold as the rest of the room, but this didn't stop Alex spending the next hours focussed exclusively on it. How had she arrived here? From being a trainee on an Alliance warship, under a highly decorated Alliance Captain, to being held in a C-Sec cell being accused of treason.

Alex heard the slight clashing of metal on metal and glanced around the room. A tin tray of food was now sitting on the small shelf next to the blue plant. She sat up on the bed and took the tray into her lap. The brown mess and rice that adorned the plate were stodgy and tasteless, but Alex knew that they were all she was going to get.

{- -« »- -}

The fizzing of her cells barrier woke Alex from a sleep that she didn't realise she was having. She heard someone enter the cell, but didn't bother to look at them until they spoke, "Going to bed in your dress blues? Tut tut."

She rolled her head over to one side to look at the new arrival. She could tell who it was from the sarcasm in his voice, but he wouldn't have been able to see her sarcastic grin otherwise, "Hey Chris. I know, shameful, isn't it?" She hoisted herself onto her elbow, "So, what are you here for?"

"C-Sec are letting us go. Apparently they think they know who it is."

Alex took his outstretched hand and dusted her uniform off, "Already? That was quick. I thought that it would be at least a few days before they found something."

They fell into step as they strode out of the cell, the Turian guards sneering as they went past. "Well, they can't hold us in these cells more than 20 hours without charging us, but we're officially still under investigation."

Alex sighed heavily, "I see. So, trapped on the Citadel for my last days of training. Great."

Chris smirked, "Indeed, but at least your trapped on the Citadel with me."

The two of them joined the small crowd of officers that had been discharged along with them. As they stepped into the reception area of the building, they were greeted by the sounds of gleeful excitement and relief as parents found their children, and husbands and wives were reunited with each other. Chris dismissed himself as one of his friends found him, and Alex could hear a familiar voice shouting her name out above the din of the crowd. She waved her hands in the air towards where the voice was coming from, "I'm over here mum!"

A smile spread across her mothers face as her eyes settled on her daughter, "Alex, thank god you're alright." Alicia ran towards her daughter as well as her dress would allow, wrapping her arms around Alex's neck and squeezing with a vice-like grip. When she'd received the news from the Alliance that her daughter was being held by Citadel Security, her whole world had been turned inside out. So much so, that she'd spent the last 20 hours in the C-Sec waiting room, living off overpriced Asari coffee, adrenaline, and about 3 hours-worth of cat naps. She didn't care about any of that now though, as long as her daughter was home and safe.

Alex hugged her mother back as hard as she could, "It's good to see you mum."

Alicia squeezed even harder for a moment before releasing her daughter from her grasp, "I'm so glad you're home safely, I can't believe that someone on your crew was a traitor. What happened?"

As Alex opened her mouth to reply, a C-Sec Kodiak and a pair of patrol cars leaped out from behind one of the nearby buildings and roared overhead, drowning out any conversation. The trio of vehicles settled in front of the building, and were immediately surrounded by Heavily armed soldiers in matte black uniforms. Almost instinctively, the crowd of officers, their families, and even a few of the other bystanders gathered around the gaps in their perimeter.

As Alex followed the crowd, a hand came from somewhere in the crowd and grabbed her arm. Sarah pulled herself through the mass of bodies towards Alex, shouldering a few of the other recruits out of the way. Alicia grabbed Sarah's other arm to stop her from falling as she steadied herself. Alex could tell that Sarah was worried about something just from the look on her face, "Sarah, are you okay? What's wrong?"

Sarah's eyes darted around the crowd nervously, "Have you seen Michael yet? I can't find him anywhere."

Alex shook her head, "No, I haven't seen him. He's probably gone back to the ship already to get some of his stuff. I wouldn't worry too much."

Alicia looked off towards the crowd gathered around the shuttle and patrol cars, "What does this Stevens fellow look like sweetie?" she asked.

Sarah shrugged, "Tall, black hair, pale skin, probably covered in grease. Why?"

Alicia swallowed heavily, "I think I might have found him."

Alex and Sarah ran towards where the shuttle had landed and frantically pushed their way though the crowd to the front, where they were greeted with a sight that shocked both of them. Hands cuffed behind his back, being forced towards the Kodiak, was Michael. He twisted around, releasing the grip of the Turian guard on his arm, but his efforts were met by the live end of a stunstick from the Asari guard following them. The blow hit him full pelt in the left thigh with a sickening crackle, causing him to drop to the ground on his left side.

Alex had a stunstick once. Her father had given it to her, the idea being that she took it out with her to keep herself safe in the wards, although she very rarely did so. She remembered one of the training sessions her father had given her on how to use it, where she had switched the device on whilst she was holding the live end. Her hand and forearm were entirely numb, as if they were not there at all. The device was only on low power at the time, so it was only a short while before she began to feel her limb again. The device that Michael had been hit by was glowing much more brightly, and had hit him at a much higher speed. She couldn't imagine how it felt, if he could even feel anything at all.

The Turian officer grabbed Michaels hair and dragged him back to his feet. The young officers nose was bleeding, and there was a small cut beside his right eye. As he was once again forced towards the shuttle, he dragged his leg behind him like a dead weight.

Alex started in horror at the scene in front of her. As she did so, a small object hurtled from the crowd and caught Michael square in the jaw, almost knocking him off his feet. The object fell to the floor with a crack, and Alex realised that the object was a large rock from one of the nearby plant boxes. Further down the line, the person who threw the rock, the husband of one of the older cadets, was shouting at Michael, "You tried to kill my wife, you bastard! You fucking son of a bitch!" The man pushed his was through the cordon of officers surrounding Michaels path, and smashed a larger rock into Michaels body. This time, the Asari guard caught Michael, whilst the Turian guard forced the man back beyond the cordon.

Despite the fact that it wasn't long ago that he had been one of the crew of the same ship as them, this didn't stop many of the crowd laughing at a battered and bruised Michael Stevens being helped into the Kodiak by an Asari.

Alex saw Michaels head hanging downwards, blood dripping down his face onto the floor of the Kodiak, before the door clicked closed and the trio of vehicles roared into the sky.

{- -« »- -}

Alex couldn't shake the images of the scene she had just witnessed out of the forefront of her mind, the images of Michaels bruised, bleeding frame being dragged into the Kodiak. The investigation was officially still ongoing, but they must be pretty convinced that it was him if they were carting him off to incarceration.

Why would he do something like that? She knew he was eccentric, but he wasn't a lunatic. She couldn't see any motivation for it, no cause for him to do this. She ran through the events of the disaster in her head, there was no way it could be him, could there?

Her mothers soft touch and warm smile brought Alex out of the spiral her mind was in. Alex smiled, she'd been away from her mother for long enough to almost forget what she was like. Her shining personality was amplified by her love for people and her ability to empathise. She was by far the most understanding person that Alex knew.

Alicia smiled back at her daughter, "We're home sweetie." she said softly.

Alex nodded weakly and nudged Sarah who was sitting next to her with her head in her hands, Alex's mother had agreed to let Sarah stay with them, rather than at one of the Alliance facilities or on the ship. After a second or so, Sarah let her hands drop and stared blankly at the floor.

The skycar settled on the landing pad, letting out puffs of steam as it descended. During the few moments whilst the skycar's various components and systems hummed themselves into silence, no one inside the car spoke. Reluctantly, the trio stepped out of the skycar. As they walked over to the apartment, the doors around the end of the garage clunked shut, sealing the Presidium on the other side.

The sleek white walls, polished floor, and open plan design of her mother's Presidium apartment made a change from the cramped interior of a warship for Alex and Sarah, although they were both too shocked to appreciate it. This was the kind of living being the child of a dead diplomat could get you.

Alex dropped onto the sofa face-first when she reached the living area. Her mother sat on the floor in front of her and stroked her hair. Alex sighed and let her mothers hand flow through her long, blonde hair. It was the most relaxed she had been for over a day. Sarah sat herself in the armchair next to the sofa, bringing her knees up around her ears and curling up.

Eventually, Alex's mum broke the silence. "I take it he was a good friend of yours?" she asked, her voice full of concern.

"You think?" Alex replied sarcastically. Immediately, she felt horrible for doing so and apologised, "Sorry mum, I just can't believe he'd do this."

Sarah scowled across at her, "You really think he could do this?"

Alex rolled over and sat up. Placing her head in her hands, she gave a heavy sigh and began to speak, "No, I don't. I mean, he's clever enough, he's a genius if ever there was one, but he wouldn't do this. He couldn't have."

Her mother raised an eyebrow, "How do you know that? Do you know everything about him? His home planet, his parents, what his life was like before you met him; do you know any of that?"

Alex opened her mouth to reply, but promptly shut it again when she realised that, no, she didn't know any of that stuff. She glanced over at Sarah, who was clearly coming to the same conclusion: that they knew almost nothing about the person they were claiming was their best friend.

Alex's mother gave a shallow sigh, "Listen, girls, you've had a long, exhausting couple of days. Why don't you both go and get changed, go to bed, and I'll get you both a hot chocolate to help you sleep. You might see things clearer in the morning. Alex, would you show Sarah where the guest room is?"

Sarah gave a faint smile, "Thank you Mrs Chamberlain. That's very kind of you." Her voice was almost inaudible in the room.

Alex's mother put her hand on Sarah's knee, and gave her a small kiss on the forehead before giving Alex one as well.

As her mother walked away towards the kitchen, Alex decided that she was right, she had had a long, exhausting day, and maybe she would see everything clearer in the morning.

{- -« »- -}

Michael Stevens admired the cell that he had been placed in. It was almost identical to the cell that he'd called home at the C-Sec holding centre, except for the subtle change in the tone of noise that the kinetic barrier made, telling him that it would give him an electric shock equivalent to the force he hit it with. The harder he hit it, the larger the shock would be. Such was the life of a criminal mastermind Stevens supposed. The only problem, was that he wasn't a criminal mastermind, and he shouldn't be here.

Stevens didn't know exactly what it was that the investigators had found, he wasn't privy to that information, but for him to be in here after only a single day, it must pe pretty convincing.

As Michael admired his accomodation, his evening meal slid through an open slot in the wall of his cell, coming to a stop in the centre of the small shelf opposite him. He struggled to reach the plate from across the room, his leg had only regained some of its feeling since being hitbwith the stunstick, but he eventually managed to grab it from his seated position on the bed.

He looked disdainfully at the tin tray he was holding. One of the compartments contained some form of watery sludge, and another one contained a few rolls of dry bread. He dipped one of the rolls into the sludge and held it in the air for a few seconds. Instead of dripping off the bread back into the bowl, as he expected, it simply stuck like a coating of brown glue. As he bit into the roll, he couldn't pick out a definitive flavour, other than that it tasted vaugely... metallic. The sludge was clearly an alien recepie, and whilst Michael didn't have a problem with alien food, some leek and potato wouldn't have gone amiss.

After the meal was finished, Michael pushed the tray back through the slot in his wall as best he could, and lay back on his bed, exhausted and stressed. He was trapped in this cell for goodness-knows-how-long whilst this investigation was done, and he had no idea what was going to happen at the end of it. He was innocent, he knew that. The question was, how was he going to prove it to everyone else?


	5. Tensions

Michael was woken abruptly the next morning when his body collided with something cold, and solid, which he quickly discovered was the floor of his cell. He rolled onto his back and rubbed his face with his hands, wiping the layer of cold-sweat he had accumulated during the night from his forehead.

Michael opened his eyes and focussed on the figure standing in his cell with him. The turians armour was radically different to all of the other guards that he had seen so far: it was adorned with ornamental gold detailing on the shoulders and chest, a sharp contrast against the matte black armoured plates, as well as having extra weapon holstering spaces and spare ammunition pouches. Even when he was only standing in the doorway, the his presence seemed to fill Michaels entire cell, making him feel extremely claustrophobic.

"Get up scumbag, it's playtime with Kaleb." a gruff voice mocked.

Muchael recognised the name immediately, Kaleb Randos, one of the Citadel councils elite Special Tactics and Reconnisance division. This turian was a Spectre, one of the most notorious and coldly efficient there was. He had become somewhat of a comic book hero amongst many people in the Galaxy, having 'diffused' many a tense situation all over the galaxy, usually through extreme violence or cold-blooded murder, but the council vids never showed that part. Reputation aside, however, he fit the councils line for 'willing to finish the job no matter what' perfectly.

He was in a lot more trouble than he thought.

{- -« »- -}

Alex smiled as she lay back in her bed, enveloped by silky sheets and duvet. She could have sworn she was in heaven. She stretched under the covers and yawned, lazily opening her eyes and looking around the room. It was just like she remembered it, before she left for her Alliance training.

The window on her left took up an entire wall, from floor to ceiling and corner to corner. Her room overlooked the statue built in the Krogan's honour for their deeds during the Rachni wars. In the distance, she could even see the statue of the Mass relay, that turned out not to be a statue at all.

Alex threw the covers off herself and put on her dressing gown and pyjamas, which she had ungracefully dumped on the floor next to her bed after she had showered the night before. She stood at the window and gazed out onto the Presidium's streets, it had been ages since she'd people watched properly. For a few weeks after her father's death, she refused to look out of the window at all, it stirred too many feelings.

The repair of the Citadel had begun almost immediately after Sovereign was destroyed and the Geth were repelled, but even now the Presidium had scars. Closed shops; barriers across bridges; panels yet to be replaced; even the empty planting boxes; each holding a different, horrifying story; each a reminder of the Geth's massacre.

Before Alex spiralled too deep into her thoughts, there was a knock at her door. "Sweetie? Are you decent?" came her mothers voice.

"At what? Tennis? Football? Bowling?" Alex replied sarcastically

"No, at painting. I thought I might redecorate." Her mother was equally as sarcastic.

Alex laughed quietly, "Yeah mum, I'm decent, come in."

The door slid open. Alex could see her mother smiling as she poked her head through the gap, "Actually, I'm not coming in, I just came to tell you that you have a guest, and that I'll call you when breakfast is ready."

She withdrew her head from the gap, and it was replaced by Chris. Alex smiled broadly as the marine approached her, and she could see him smiling back. When he was within a few feet of her, she took a delicate step forwards and wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her lips deep into his. They kissed for a few seconds before Alex had to come up for air.

Chris smiled down at her, "Good morning little one. Sleep well?"

Alex hugged his chest, "Like a rock. I needed it. You?"

"I'd have slept better if you were with me."

Alex laughed lightly, "I never knew you were a romantic."

"Well, why don't I show you just how romantic I can be?"

Suddenly, Chris picked Alex up and lay her on her back on the bed. He postioned himself over her, his fists by her shoulders, and his knees by her waist. He lowered himself down, pressing his entire upper body against hers, before he began to kiss down her neck onto her chest.

Alex let him for a few seconds, before lightly pushing him off her, "Well, as romantic as you are loverboy, I'm really not up to it this morning. Okay?"

He rolled onto his side, next to Alex, "Why little one? What's up?" His face was contorted to look sad, but Alex couldn't tell whether it was with concern for her, or disappointment that he wasn't getting any.

"You mean apart from the fact that my training has been put on hold because one of my friends has been arrested?" Alex said, irritated.

"Al, don't worry too much about it. I'm sure C-Sec will find enough evidence to convict him soon, and then we can all get released and you can finish your training."

"What? You think I want him to get charged?"

"You think he's innocent?" Chirs asked, confused.

"Well, yeah. You don't honestly think that he's capable of something like this do you?" Alex asked, surprised.

Chris chuckled sarcastically, "Alex, I know you think he's your friend and all, but you've barely known the guy five minutes. The only reason that he's behind bars, is because that's where he belongs."

Alex could feel anger beginning to bubble up through her body, but she managed to bite her tongue. Causing an argument would do nothing but upset them both. She spoke through gritted teeth, "I know him, alright. He wouldn't do this."

"So you know everything there is to know about him do you? Exactly what he's like? Exactly how his mind works? That right?" Chris replied, anger and sarcasm giving his voice a slight edge.

Alex stayed silent. It was the same point that her mother had made the night before, and they were both right, she knew nothing about him, she'd never asked.

Chris propped himself up on one elbow, the tint of anger gone from his voice, "Look, babe, I'm sorry that he's your friend, but they wouldn't have him there if they didn't think he was guilty, would they?"

Hesitantly, Alex shook her head.

Chris stroked Alex's blonde hair from her face, planting a kiss on her forehead. "Like I said, don't worry about him, yeah? In the meantime, why not take some time to yourself? You know you deserve it." He threw a cheeky wink at her, and she was able to crack a small smile. He knew exactly which buttons to press to make her feel better.

The pair of them heard a muffled shout from the kitchen. Chris heaved himself off the bed and held out a hand to Alex, "Better get a move on, smells like bacon."

Alex laughed faintly at him and took his hand, hauling herself to her feet. He was right, it definitely smelt like bacon.

{- -« »- -}

Michaels expectations of an interrogation with a single light in a darkened room were not disappointed. The worn leather chair was uncomfortable and cold; the metal cuffs that bound his hands and legs to the chair bit at his skin relentlessly. The small table under the light had several datapads lying on it, all with different files open on their screens.

He could hear someone stepping in circles around him, slowly, methodically. The steps eventually ceased somewhere to the right of where Michael was sitting, but the figure was obscured by darkness.

Out of nowhere, the voice that had accompanied him from his cell to the room spoke, in the same gruff voice as before, "State your name and service number."

"Officer Cadet Michael Stevens, Systems Alliance, Service number 8246-GA-0175." His voice was crisp and precise.

The Spectre grunted, "What is it that you think you're here for _human_?" The acid in his voice when he spoke the last word was obvious.

"I don't know sir." Michael replied.

"Guess then."

"Because you believe that I had something to do with the attack on the SSV Moscow sir."

"Well, I see nothing escapes you, human." The turian said sarcastically.

"What makes you think I did it?"

"You don't get to ask questions, human."

"I can't testify if I don't know what evidence you've got against me."

The spectre began to chuckle, "You're not here to testify human, you're here so that I can pump every last but of information out of you, by force if I must, starting with who your employer was."

Michael's throat went dry, he had nothing to do with the attack on Moscow, nothing at all, but this spectre clearly meant business, he had to say something. "Well, I was employed by a small shop once, selling groceries and the like, then I moved to Grissom Academy and almost got employed by a couple of large armament companies, but I turned them down and now I'm employed by the Alliance. That about sum it up?"

The Turian sat completely still. Michael couldn't decide whether it was through shock or rage. After a few seconds, the turian nodded his head.

Michael wasn't sure what the meaning of the odd gesture was, until he saw a faint blue glow, in the shape of a turian female, to his right. In a second, Michael went from being a stationary object, to flying across the room. He came to a halt smacking his face on the floor, hard.

He didn't have long to compose himself before a second barrage flung him again, smashing his chair against a wall. Despite the impact, he remained clipped into the chair, feeling warm blood dripping down his right cheek.

He could hear the turian preparing for another volley, when his interrogator said, "Enough, for now."

He could hear one of his attackers stomping across the room towards him. A hand grabbed the back of his collar, yanked him up, and held him in the air, face pressed against the wall.

The Spectre, Kaleb, growled in his ear, "You forget human, we have all the time in the world to play this game..." The turian sniggered, "... but I doubt you'll last past the second round, if you're lucky."

The spectre let go of Michaels collar and dropped him to the ground. The impact of the chair legs hitting the floor reverberated through his spine and apmlifoed the pain of the cut on his head.

Michael took sharp breaths between his gritted teeth, "I can't tell you what I don't know." He almost shouted out.

The spectre laughed aloud, "Well now, I've cracked agents tougher than you before, but this should be fun. Hit him again."

Michael felt the weight dissipate from his body as he was sucked into a singularity, and the biotic prepared another round of volleys.

{- -« »- -}

The knife and fork clinked lightly against the ceramic plate, this was the third round of bacon, egg, and toast that Alex had demolished, and three delicious rounds they had been. She leaned into the back of her chair, after eating mess food for the past month, this was heaven manifested. Her, Chris, and Sarah were sitting at the apartments breakfast bar whilst Alex's mother flitted back and forth between the toaster and the hob, making yet more food for them.

Chris was happily munching on the food thay was left on his plate, but Sarah had barely touched hers. At the moment, she was idly dipping a piece of toast into her drink of tea, her eyes staring vaguely at the bar.

"I've heard of tea and toast before, but aren't you taking it a little literally?" Alex remarked to Sarah.

Sarah's eyes immediately shot up to look at Alex. "Huh?" she asked.

Alex pointed to the cup of drink, and Sarah sighed as she realised what she was doing. She placed the toast in the bin in the middle of the bar, before turning to Alex, "Sorry Alex, I just can't believe Michael would do something like this. It just seems so... weird."

Alex placed a hand on her friends arm, eliciting a small smile. "Hey, Sarah, it's alright. None of us knew he was capable of something like this. We're all shocked."

"I'm not, for one." Chris butted in, mouth still half full of food.

Alex turned her head towards Chris, shooting daggers at him with her eyes.

Chris shrugged, "You said that we were all shocked, I was just telling you that we're not."

"Why aren't you surprised?" Sarah asked picking up another piece of toast and lightly nibbling at the corner.

"I'm just not." Chris said. Sarah raised her eyebrow and he elaborated, "Come on, the geeky techy who was constantly tinkering with the ship? It's perfectly logical that he would he able to pull this off. He obviously thought he was so good that he wouldn't get caught. Guess he was wrong, for once."

"He only says he's that good, because he really is that good." Sarah growled.

Chris shook his head dejectedly, "Whatever. Just don't come crying to me when you find out you're wrong."

Sarah opened her mouth to reply when they heard someone knock heavily on the front door. Alex's mother quickly served the remaining bacon and eggs, pointing towards the three of them and firmly stating "Be good." as she left to answer the door.

Sarah continued to give Chris the death glare, but he ignored her, dilligently attacking the fresh food that had arrived on his plate.

A few moments later, Alex's mother returned to the kitchen with two C-Sec officers, and Asari and a Human.

Alex and Sarah shot worrying glances at each other, they both immediately recognised the Asari from the incident outside the C-Sec station, she was the one that had hit him with the stunstick. Instinctively. Alex tensed up, glaring at the officer intensely.

"Alex, Chris, Sarah, this is Sergeant Keeley and Lieutenant Kinori." Alex's mother gestured to the Human and Asari officers in turn, "They're here to give you an update on the investigation." she made way for the Asari officer.

The lieutenant nodded curtly and stepped forwards, "We've just brought the people that attacked your vessel into custody. We're holding them at one of our maximum security facilities here on the Citadel."

"Finally, took you long enough." Alex murmured.

The Asari raised an eyebrow before continuing, "However, the nature of the investigation has been altered. We no longer believe that he's guilty of treason."

"What? Why?" Chris said, surprised.

"Because there isn't enough evidence to suggest that he's commited treason."

"So that's it? You're just going to let him get away with it?" Chris practically shouted at the Asari. "How can you do that? He tried to kill us, in case you didn't notice! What the hell happened to justice while we were asleep?"

The Sergeant reached for his stunstick, but the Asari held up a hand to him. He obediently replaced the weapon on his belt, but left his hand resting on the handle. The Asari continued, "He is still being investigated mister Evans, just not on charges of treason."

"W-what are you charging him of n-now?" Sarah stammered out, nervously.

"He's being investigated on several charges of conspiring and attempting to carry out a terrorist attack; as well as a charge of war crimes. Obviously, because these charges no longer involve any direct action against the Citadel or the Citadel council, the Alliance is taking over."

Alex felt a tingle run down her spine, making her shiver with cold electricity. A war criminal? This wasn't happening. There was no way the Michael would do something like this, he lived and breathed the Alliance. Something was wrong, very wrong.

Alex's mother was the first to compose herself enough to lead the two officers to the door and bid them farewell.n

Unsurprisingly, Chris was the next to recover, "Good riddance to him. I hope he burns in hell." he said, indignantly.

"Get out." Sarah growled between clenched teeth.

"You hear this Al? The little kitty cat wants me to leave." He mocked.

"You heard her Chris, just get out. I've heard enough out of you." Alex's mother sighed, exasperated.

He stood up and stormed towards the door, growling, "Alright _mum_, chill your buns, I'm going. But mark my words, he's as guilty as they get." The door slid silently shut behind him.


	6. Loyalties

Alex hadn't slept, her mind wouldn't stop working overtime. Even now she was wondering weather this was really a good idea, but she had to look into Michaels eyes when he said it wasn't true. She hoped he said it wasn't true.

Her stomach performed another somersault inside her. She hadn't even eaten yet, she was too nervous to face food. She looked over at the entrance to the prisons reception area, trying to decide once and for all if this really was a good idea or not. She was expected, but she could make up some excuse, she'd done it before.

No. She had to see him. She had to hear him out. Alex brushed some more powder on her face to try and hide the two slugs of dark bags that had decided to take up residence underneath her eyes, and stepped out if the skycar.

She introduced herself at the reception desk, and showed her appointment card to the asari sitting there, who instructed her to take a seat in the reception area until she was collected. A slight glint of gunmetal caught Alex's eye as the asari handed back the appointment card. Even the receptionist was ready for anything it seemed.

From the outside, the building looked much like any of the other conventional Citadel skyscrapers, jutting like stalagmites from the ward arms. From the inside, however, the building was radically different.

Rather than the calming white panels of the civillian towers, the inside was decorated in steeley grey panelling, with large C-Sec logos on all of the doors; and CCTV cameras with blinking red lights scanned the room tirelessly. Alex counted eight in the reception area alone.

The most opressive part though, was the guards. Each was dressed from head to toe in matte black armour, and wielded a full set of military-grade weapons. They stood perfectly still, almost as if they had been petrified into statues. Alex knew, however, that this was not the case. These guards probably wouldn't jump if a thresher maw clawed its way through the front door.

Alex could feel her legs begin to bounce with nerves. Twisting and umtwisting her fingers, She tried not to look at the guards, convinced that all their eyes were on her. She swallowed a mouthful of saliva, as well as tugging on her collar to release some of the heat that was building up inside her high collared Alliance uniform.

Alex checked the time on her omni-tool, she had been sitting in the reception area about half an hour. As she looked up, she noticed the receptionist approaching her, flanked by two heavily armed guards. Alex stood, placing her cap back on her head, doing her best to hide her nerves.

The receptionists voice was quiet but firm, "The scanning team is ready for you now. These two gentlemen will show you where to go."

She gave a curt nod to the receptionist, who promptly returned to her desk, and Alex followed the two guards through one of the large steel-grey doors.

The room they stepped into was much brighter than the reception area, decked out with pure white panelling and strip lights along the directly in front of her, was a thin, doorway-like device, sitting on a circular track. More blinking security cameras decorated the corners of the room.

A human man in a black scientists tunic stood to one side of the device, head hanging over a computer monitor, and tapping frantically. His eyes flicked up to Alex briefly before focussing on the monitor again. "If you'd like to step into the scanner miss, so we can get this over with." He said impatiently.

Alex scowled at the top of his head before stepping into the archway. A bolt of energy leapt from each side of the archway onto Alex. She immediately felt her muscles tense up and freeze in place. She tried to force herself to move, but her body wouldn't respond to anything that she did.

The man spoke again, just as imaptiently as before, "Don't panic miss, we just have to ensure that you don't move at all during the scan."

'Could have told me that before you zapped me.' Alex thought.

The archway gradually began to rotate on the tracks, gaining speed with every revoultion. As it gained more speed, Alex could hear the scanner whistling through the air. After a few seconds, the scanner began to noticably decrease in speed, until it came to rest in the same position it started. Another bolt of energy leapt from the machine and struck Alex, immediately relaxing her muscles. She managed to catch herself before she tumbled to the ground.

"We're done here." murmered the man at the terminal, "If you'd like to step through these doors, another team of guards will take you to your criminal friend." A set of doors slid open on the wall in front of Alex, revealing an elevator with another pair of pitch black guards.

Alex bit back an insult and stepped into the elevator. The doors slid shut behind her, making the elevator suddenly dingy. Alex heard the distinct noise of a heavy lock sliding into place. One of the guards pressed the button marked '10' and the elevator began to ascend.

The reception was clearly where all similarities with the traditional habitation blocks ended. The floor Alex arrived in contained a single block of cells, arranged in a grid, every hall patrolled by armed guards, every square milimeter watched every minute of every day by a sophisticated CCTV network.

As she was marched through the grid to Michaels cell, she took the time to look in at the other prisoners. She had expected them to be doing something to keep them occupied, or in some form of social environment, but this was not the case. They were locked in their cells with nothing but their thoughts and 3 square meals a day.

After making their winding way through the grid, the guards finally stopped walking. Through the kinetic barrier, Alex could clearly see Stevens, lying back on the bed, his head at the furthest end of the cell.

One of the guards spoke into the cell, his voice gritty through his helmets modulator, "You have a visitor."

Michael did not move. Even when the guards dropped the barrier and let Alex enter, he remained unflinchingly static.

Alex leaned against the wall opposite the bed, and save for her shallow breathing, the cell was silent. She watched Michael for several moments, trying to bring her emotions back into check. She knew that she was here to drill him for answers, but she found it difficult not to throw her arms round him and sob all over him, to feel his pain with him. He wouldn't have appreciated it, of course, emotions were never really his thing. She inhaled deeply, and did her best to rein her emotions in, "W-why Michael? Why?" She cursed herself in her head, the question had stuttered out awkwardly, a far cry from being the grand challenge that she'd planned it to be the entire journey here.

Michael still refrained from moving, "You really think I had something to do with it?"

"Someone clearly does."

He let out a shrill laugh, "Well, that someone is wrong." He slowly rotated his head until he was facing her. A bruise was spreading like a blue-black mould around his right eye, accompanied by several red-raw cuts, one of which was stitched shut. "Quite something, isn't it?"

Alex just stared at his face for a few seconds, mesmerised by the injuries he had. "Did you get those from when they marched you out of the C-Sec building?"

"Nope, although it didn't help." He finally sat up, draping his legs over the edge of the bed, shoulders sagged, still looking up towards Alex. "I got these from a three-hour trip to interrogation yesterday."

Alex shook her head slowly, "Three hours? Is it even legal to interrogate someone for that long?"

"It doesn't matter weather it is or not when a Spectre is the one doing the interrogating."

Alex snapped back to reality, her eyes being drawn from the bruise, into his piercing green eyes. Their usual enthusiastic child-like quality was gone, replaced by a smouldering glare. For some reason, those eyes gave her confidence. Not necessarily safety, more of a wild, untamed animal than a safe haven, but confidence nonetheless. "Can you prove you're innocent?"

He shrugged, "Someone framed me, they've probably discarded any evidence that I could've used." His head tilted to one side, his brow furrowing with curiosity.

Alex continued, "When are they transferring you to Alliance custody?"

"Tomorrow. They collect me and the others at 23:00hrs, shuttle lifts off at 24:00hrs. Then it's off to a secure facility somewhere on Earth. Probably Vancouver."

Alex stood up, looking Michael straight in the eye, "I'll see you then."

Michael slid off the shelves and snapped off a quick salute as Alex left the cell. The guards led her back through the cellblock, she memorised the way. Every turn, every nook, every cranny. Despite the fact that it had been her plan all along, now that she'd seen Michael, she wasn't so sure. She felt terrified that something would go wrong. Had he not picked up on her hint? Was it too subtle? Would they have enough evidence to convince anybody that he was innocent? Was he even innocent? A million thoughts ran through her head. As they entered the elevator at the end of the block, Alex risked a glance at the guards to her left and right. Her paranoia immediately kicked in. She could feel their eyes roaming over her skin, boring into her heart and soul.

The elevator doors slid silently open in front of her, and silently closed behind her as she stepped out, swallowing the two guards and heaving them back up the building.

Without a second glance, Alex hurried out of the building, slipping her cap on as she went. The air outside the building was much cooler than on the inside, she swallowed down lung-fulls of air as she slumped, trembling into the drivers seat of her skycar. She couldn't believe she was even considering this. She was close to becoming an Alliance officer, an intelligent, highly respected officer. Was she willing to risk letting all of that go, for a man she was no longer sure that she could prove was innocent? Aside from that, was she sure she could bear to ask her friends to help her do it?

Yes.

She had to. Someone had tried to kill the entire crew of an Alliance warship. They might have failed this time, but they would learn from their mistakes. If she didn't prove his innocence, that criminal would remain out there, and the next Crew to run into them wouldn't be so lucky.

The skycar's engine roared to life as Alex powered away from the facility. She needed some time to think, time to plan, time to prepare. They had a monumental task to accomplish.

{- -« »- -}

Vixen had never been sure about any of their mission, never been sure about capturing a cruiser, never sure about working with Cerberus. He should have guessed that something was wrong as soon as they said they'd deny all knowledge of them if something went wrong, when they said no to letting them test the technology first, when they were paid in advance. Crab and Kat had been well up for it though, and they were his friends, his partners, how was he supposed to say no to them? Besides, it had been good money, ten million credits in fact. More than he'd ever earned in the rest of his career. He pulled a twisted, rueful smile at the thought of all that money sitting in his account, never going to get used.

Vixen wasn't your average mercenary. He was born on Earth, did well in school, got a good job, got married, even had a couple of kids. Joining the Alliance was definitely the worst thing he ever did, some midlife crisis that was. His wife left him after he returned from his first tour of duty and took everything he had with her. House, money, kids, his whole life just disappeared right before his eyes. Slowly, he descended to drinking, and other less legal forms of relaxation, and eventually lost his job in the Alliance too. dishonourable discharge, dumped on a frontier colony world with nothing but the address of the nearest veterans association. Luckily for him, Crab and Kat had found him, lying in a pool of his own sick in a drain on Elysium, if Kat was to be believed, off his head on scotch and red sand. Vixen still didn't understand why they stopped to help him, there were plenty of other veterans just like him on Elysium, plenty of other relics choked full of regret and bitterness.

He sat up on the bed, wiping his face with his hands, removing a layer of cold sweat. He rested his arms on his knees, trembling like mad, his clothes almost dripping wet. Vixen looked across the void separating the two walls of cells. He could see Crab, slamming his hands against the barrier, shouting at the guards standing outside. A bolt of blue light shot through Crab's body, and he jolted, all of his joints stiffening up at the same time. He stumbled back, flopping like a rag doll onto his bed, a thin white smoke rising off him.

It hadn't taken long for them to end up here after they'd dropped out of FTL, a few hours at most. The combat with the frigates had been relatively quick, but by no means bloodless.

With both ships already with no barriers, it was impossible to put up any real fight with them. Kat, however, hadn't seen it like that. She'd always hated the Alliance, ever since her home colony was destroyed by the Batarians. The Alliance had shown up, but not in time to be of any real use. Since then, her blood had boiled every time someone so much as whispered about the Alliance in a positive way. Surrender to the Alliance was never an option for her. As much as he and Crab had begged her to stop shooting, she refused. As ruthless as she was, she stuck to her guns, and he would always remember her for that. If Crab and Vixen had been on the same ship as her, they'd both be gone as well.

There was supposed to be agents on those ships, both of the cruisers, this plan had been in the making for months, and look what had happened. Something had gone wrong, someone had misjudged something, and now he and Crab would pay the price for it. God damn Cerberus.

His second meal since he arrived slid through an opening in the wall onto the table. He dipped the single chunk of bread he had into the soup-like meal. He didn't know what was in it, he didn't know where it came from... but it was food, and he was damn hungry.

{- -« »- -}

The three of them sat on one side of the table, all facing Alex. From the gobsmacked looks on their faces, she could tell that her plan hadn't gone down well.

Sarah shook her head slowly, and let out an amused smile, "This is a joke right? You're not serious, you can't be." She laughed nervously. Alex raised an eyebrow.

"You do know what you're saying, don't you?" Chris leaned forwards onto his elbows, "You do know what these places are?"

"Of course I do Chris," Alex sighed, "But he's innocent, we can't let him go to prison and let whoever organised this to go free!" When there was no reply, Alex huffed and looked at Barnturp, "What do you think Dan?"

He sat completely for a few seconds, staring at the table. When he replied, his voice was soft, almost like he was scared she might lash out if he said the wrong thing, "I agree, if we let him go down, they're only going to get more dangerous."

Alex smiled and looked at the other two, a hint of smugness in her eye, "Well?"

Sarah sighed, finally giving in the her fellow cadet, "Alright, fine, count me in too."

All eyes focussed on Chris. He stood up violently, forcing his chair to fall to the ground. He snarled the words across the table, "No, I am not doing this! He is guilty, he wouldn't be there if he wasn't."

"Chris, please! We need your help, we can't do it without you!" Alex begged.

He slammed his hand on the table, "Then you'll just have to give up on it then, won't you!" He stormed from the room, his hands curled into fists, growling under his breath.

Alex watched him go. As the door hissed shut behind him, she felt a tear form on her right cheek, slowly making its way down, and dropping gracefully to the floor. She jumped as a hand touched her shoulder, it was Sarah, with a comforting smile on her face. Both of them let out a nervous laugh.

"So," Sarah said as they sat back down, "How are we going to do this?"

{- -« »- -}

Chris made his way down to the Presidium streets, past the usual crowd that this part of the wards dealt with, snobs and bureaucrats. Hippocrates all of them. He watched Several young Asari gliding gracefully across the floor, their dresses flowing behind them. He puffed himself out as the came by, causing one of the group to drape her hand over his chest. He gave her a sultry smile to her as they parted ways and continued on their original paths.

Chris didn't hate Aliens, but he knew that the Alliance was willing to let humanity be ruled by them. Cerberus however, wasn't willing to let that happen. Humans had as much right as any other to be in charge, and he was going to do what he could to get them there.

His intentions for joining the Alliance had been good: to do his bit, to help defend and care for humanity, but the Alliance had grown weak under the banner of the council, unable to make hard choices, too willing to fail the humans it swore to defend in order to scrape crumbs from under the council's table. Cerberus, however, was strong, willing, able to make the tough choices, to do anything for the greater good of humanity. Not bound by law, or convention, only they could save humanity from being turned into slaves by the other races.

The door to his apartment opened automatically as he approached. He may have hated living among diplomats, but he wasn't going to let that spoil his crib.

He slid his jacket off and hooked it onto the coat rail. Wiping the sweat from his brow, he thought about the conversation he'd just had with Alex. A rescue mission? It was suicide. But that wasn't the main problem, he was in there for a reason, he was in there because that's the way the back-up plan was supposed to end, with that kid Stevens in an Alliance prison, so that he and the other operatives could walk free. If she really could break him out, the pair of them would figure it out eventually.

He pressed a single panel to his left into the wall. After a few moments, the small section of the wall slid to one side, and he entered the space through the newly created gap. The only illumination was the faint blue outlines of two circles, the larger roughly a meter and a half in diameter, sitting in the dead centre of the square room; the second stood a meter to one side of the other, and was only half a meter across at most. All of the light they generated however, was sucked up by the perfectly uniform black walls.

Chris stood inside the smaller circle, and after a brief pause, the figure of a man appeared in the larger circle. The man sat serenely in a large armchair, cigar in one hand, tumbler of bourbon in the other. His expression was completely passive and unreadable, "Operative Evans, what have you got to report on the situation?" His voice was calm and measured, displaying no hint of emotion or stress.

Chris gulped audibly. Delivering bad news to a superior was one thing, delivering bad news to the Illusive man, was another thing entirely. "Sir, we have a problem."


End file.
